Brazil sets goal to get off the UN hunger map

Brazil wants to get out of the UN hunger map and the world map of food and nutritional insecurity, explained today the Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger, Wellington Dias, during an appearance in the Senate.

Dias admitted that the Brazilian government is challenged to provide food and nutritional security to the 33 million people who have gone hungry again in Brazil after the country exited the United Nations (UN) hunger map in 2014, to which it returned in 2021.

“The goal is to take Brazil off the hunger map again, take it off the map of food and nutrition insecurity and, at the same time, guarantee conditions to reduce the number of people living in extreme poverty and poverty and also increase the middle class,” the minister stressed.

Dias maintained that his portfolio is updating the database of the Brazilian Federal Government’s Unified Registry of Social Programs (CadÚnico) so that public policies are targeted to serve the correct public.

“An organized registry is the heart of social policy. The registry guarantees efficiency because it reaches those who need it. In the Unified Registry, we know who is in poverty and extreme poverty, and, from there, we can direct public policies,” he commented.

Official figures state that poverty in Brazil affects more than 60 million people, or 29.4 percent of the population.

“We have a serious problem. It is not reasonable that one of the world’s ten largest powers has almost half its population living in poverty. Nor is it reasonable for a country that is the fourth largest food producer to have a quarter of its population unable to eat daily. Some people eat breakfast and do not know if they will have lunch or dinner,” he said.